Berlin, 04 June 2019: The Management Board of HMS Bergbau AG, one of the leading independent raw materials marketing and trading companies in Germany and the principal shareholder of Silesian Coal International Group of Companies S.A. (“Silesian”), announces that Silesian has been granted a positive environmental consent decision as per 3rd of June 2019 by the local environmental authority in Katowice, Poland, as part of a mining license application. A positive environmental consent decision is considered the final milestone on the road to receiving the final mining license. The environmental consent decision defines the framework conditions for the mining process in terms of its environmental impact. The mining license application will be now filed for in due course.
Silesian Coal International Group of Companies SA was already awarded the “Green Laurel” environmental award in January 2019 by the “Ekorozwój” (“Eco-Development”) Economic Chamber. The prize was awarded for the innovative hard coal mining project that uses the existing infrastructure to largely avoid unnecessary environmental pollution.
The drilling in Orzesze, carried out by HMS and based on an exclusive exploration license, indicated potential coal reserves of 2.2 billion tonnes in-situ, of which approximately 672 million tonnes were identified as high-grade, recoverable coal according to the JORC standard. Silesian plans to develop the reserves using the existing infrastructure and to build production to roughly 3 million tonnes of coal annually at low cost (approx. 1/3 of the cost of a greenfield project) and within two and a half years of receiving the mining licence. The planned production is split equally between high-margin coking coal and thermal coal. The license region has a total area of approximately 20 km² and is located in the historic coal region of Katowice, Poland.
HMS Bergbau AG currently owns 98.9 per cent of the Silesian Coal International Group of Companies S.A.